Rural Development Policies and Links

Privacy Policy

Our privacy policy is clear: We will collect no personal information about you when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information to us. For more information, please visit:

Rural Development Privacy Policy

Accessibility

Rural Development maintains an Accessibility Statement and Resources page at:

Rural Development Accessibility

Nondiscrimination

Rural Development maintains a Nondiscrimination Statement at:

Nondiscrimination Statement

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) -- Title 5 of the United States Code, Section 552 -- became law in 1966. FOIA provides any person the right to request access to Federal agency records or information. All United States government agencies are required to disclose records after receiving a written request for them, except for records that are protected from disclosure by the nine exemptions and three exclusions under the FOIA. This right of access is enforceable in court. The Federal FOIA does not provide access to records held by State or local government agencies, or by private businesses or individuals. All States have their own statutes governing public access to state and local records. State agencies should be consulted for further information about them.

For more information about Rural Development and the FOIA, please visit:

Freedom of Information Act

Digital Rights and Copyright

Most information presented on Rural Development's website is considered public domain information. Public domain information may be freely distributed or copied, but use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. Attribution may be cited as follows: USDA Rural Development.

Some materials on the Rural Development site are protected by copyright, trademark, or patent, and/or are provided for personal use only. Such materials are used by Rural Development with permission, and we have made every attempt to identify and clearly label them. You may need to obtain permission from the copyright, trademark or patent holder to acquire, use, reproduce or distribute these materials.

Trademark

Congress has not granted Rural Development a trademark. Use of the Rural Development symbol is stated below:

The Rural Development symbol [is] used to identify the agency in all information materials for all media generated by the agency. If written permission has been obtained from Rural Development Legislative and Public Affairs Staff, private sector partners may display the Rural Development symbol. However, it must not appear to constitute warranty of private sector organizations, products, services or endeavors (unless there is a legal agreement to do so). The symbol shall not be displayed in a manner that could be construed as favoring one private organization or product over another.

Links to Other Sites

The Rural Development website has links to other sites. Once you access another site through a link that we provide, you are subject to the copyright and licensing restrictions of the new site.

It is your sole responsibility, as the user of this site, to carefully examine the content of the site and all linked pages for copyright and licensing restrictions and to secure all necessary permissions.

No Fear Act

In May 2002, President Bush signed legislation called the No FEAR Act (Notification and Federal Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002). This law became effective on October 1, 2003. The primary purpose of the Act is to improve agency accountability for antidiscrimination and whistleblower laws.

Rural Development data related to the No Fear Act is at:

Rural Development No Fear Act Data

Quality of Information

Rural Development strives to ensure and maximize the quality, objectivity, utility and integrity of the information that we disseminate to the public.

More information about Rural Development and information quality is at:

Quality of Information

Website Security

The USDA Rural Development website is provided as a public service.

Information presented on the Rural Development website is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This government computer system uses software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas.

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with the National Archives and Records Administration General Schedule 20.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Information posted on this site complies with the standards set forth in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998.

Information posted on this site may be changed and re-posted. If there are discrepancies between the information on the Internet and the Department's official version or federal regulation publication, those official publications take precedence.

Web Content Publishing Schedule

Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Government Act of 2002 requires Federal agencies to develop an inventory of information to be published on their websites, establish a schedule for publishing information, make those schedules available for public comment, and post the schedules and priorities on the website.

To view Rural Development's inventory and/or submit comments, please visit the USDA Web Content Inventory

Disclaimer

Effort has been made to provide accurate and complete information. However, we cannot guarantee that there will be no errors. Neither the U.S. Government, USDA, nor USDA Rural Development assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product, or process disclosed herein, or represents that use of such information, product, or process would not infringe on privately owned rights.

The Rural Development website contains links to various other federal and state agencies and private organizations. These links are maintained solely for the user's information and convenience. Once you link to another site, please be aware that you are then subject to the policies of the new site. In addition, please note that Rural Development does not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness, or accuracy of these outside materials. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to particular items in hypertext is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to constitute approval or endorsement of any views expressed, or products or services offered, on these outside web sites, or the organizations sponsoring the web sites.

Comments or Questions

If you have any comments or questions about the policy information on this page, please send them to Rdwebmaster@usda.gov. Comments or questions specifically related to computer or systems security should be directed to Rural Development's Information Systems Security Staff at security.mail@stl.rural.usda.gov.